


Dinners and Distractions

by writingfromdarkplaces



Series: These Small Hours [2]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s11e10 Devil's Triad, F/M, Fluff, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7863094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingfromdarkplaces/pseuds/writingfromdarkplaces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellie and Jake share a cold meal and her worries about the case that involved the Fornell family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dinners and Distractions

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is shameless wishful thinking on my part, but I'd like to think it was like this.
> 
> And I couldn't resist them doing the shared sitting on the counter thing. I know it's not canon, but it is so cute and seems like them.
> 
> I tied in a concept I referenced in flashbacks I used for Oceans Apart, that Jake was aware of her inclination toward NCIS and that it concerned him.

* * *

“It's cold again.”

Ellie shrugged, taking the plate from him and climbing up on top of the counter. She loaded up her fork and took a bite, smiling after she finished chewing. “The Malloy special is better cold.”

Jake shook his head. Not only was there nothing special about the meal—it was his go to survival dish in college when he'd entered the strange reality of a world where he had to cook for himself, but it was almost inedible after it had cooled off. “You only say that because we had a bad habit of letting it get cold when we were busy with other things.”

She blushed, and he figured he was a bit red himself after bringing up their early days. Maybe that was for the best, though. He had been almost angry when she got in late again. He didn't know when the last time was they'd actually eaten dinner together, and same with their usual lunch dates. He felt like he hadn't hardly seen her since she started this joint detail.

He went to the fridge, taking out a bottle and joining her on the counter.

“Oh, no, I am not letting you distract me again,” she said, going back to her food. She continued to shove food in her mouth like he was going to take it away from her, which was ridiculous. He'd never done that before. He knew better than to get between his wife and food. “I shouldn't have let it happen last time. I had a lot to figure out that night, and we didn't even talk. You owe me all the stories about Gibbs and—oh, did I tell you I met his ex-wife? She was part of a case, and it is just so crazy that she was involved with him. Now she's involved with Fornell, but not just Fornell because there was another boyfriend and he was a suspect but it turns out he's an undercover agent, and I have to wonder if she always gravitates towards men who have badges or—”

“Ellie,” Jake said, covering his her hand with his, and she looked up, staring at him. “It's my job to distract you, remember?”

She grimaced. “I suppose I am getting a little obsessive again.”

Jake bit back saying more than a _little_ obsessive. Her connection to Gibbs actually worried him, not that he thought the man would hurt her or that she saw him as something other than a father figure, but she seemed more attached to the joint-detail than he liked. If she was this happy working with NCIS, she wasn't going to want the assignment to end. And it was dangerous.

“More than a little. You ate that entire plate in under two minutes, and that stuff is disgusting cold. Is something bothering you?”

“I almost got a girl killed,” Ellie admitted. “It was my assessment that he wouldn't kill her, and so we paid him, but he gave me a phone that didn't work. I thought we'd lost her and the ransom we paid for her.”

Jake took the empty plate from her, setting it aside before pulling her into his arms. “Oh, Ellie.”

“It worked out, though,” Ellie said. “That is one tough kid—she put her watch on her kidnapper and we were able to use it to track him down.”

“I'm glad.”

Ellie snuggled up against him, closing her eyes. “Do you think we'd do it?”

Jake frowned. “Think to put a trackable watch on our kidnappers? Well, you might, but I'm not that kind of a thinker. You know me.”

“I think you'd do better than you think in a crisis. You're a smart man,” she said, and he gave her a tired smile. He didn't think he'd be any use in this world she was currently inhabiting, and it concerned him, but he was probably worrying for nothing. “I actually meant the situation with Fornell and his ex-wife. They split up once, but they're back together now.”

“And you want to know if we would do that?” Jake winced. “Well, I happen to hope we never reach that point, but if we did... I would hope we'd somehow find our way back to each other, even if it took years.”

“Hmm,” Ellie said. “Me, too.”


End file.
